Normally reserved for Royalty, leaders of countries and CEO's, over the last years, legacy has come more heavily into the vernacular in regards to the average person.
This is not just what will be left as an inheritance, it is the idea of the person themselves. How will they be remembered and for what they will be remembered. Curating a reputation for beyond the grave.
This seems to be tied to our likely human fascination with immortality. We tend to fancy ourselves worthy of eternity. We seem to have a little bit of a god complex.
Perhaps this has been learned from the kings and queens, then the leaders of a country and then the CEO. Each layer raises themselves and gets lifted onto a pedestal for worship and the ego grows. Now it is our turn.
In the age of claiming individuality and uniquity, we now fancy ourselves the new royalty and this role requires remembrance and therefore investment into building a profile to worship.
Who do we want to remember us? Everyone. We want family to remember all that we have done for them, friends to remember all of the good times and strangers to remember how we were, at least, how we want them to think we were.
This is done in hundreds of ways, like a child that has newly learned how to write their name, we want to label everything we touch as ours. Mark our territory, stake a claim.
We want all to know, this is who we were, this is how we lived our lives, bear witness, carry the message on.
But, who will remember?
While driving recently, my wife and I were listening to the Beatles while our daughter slept. She commented how the songs have stood the test of time and when Come Together came on, I mentioned that I think the song was well ahead of its time both lyrically and musically. Then I remembered something that I had heard a few years ago.
When the song FourFiveSeconds was released by Rihanna, West and McCartney, some young people commented how great it is that they had given a chance and exposure to this old guy on guitar. Of course they were mocked mercilessly for their ignorance but for many of the younger, how would they know who he is?
It doesn't matter whether they can name the man, know one of his songs or have heard of the Beatles at all, they all are affected by his legacy.
Legacy to me is not what you will be remembered for leaving behind, it is what will live on through others and will influence in massively random and unknown ways. It is what one inspires in those who they come in contact with that sets off a chain reaction of events that will grow and reduce organically but have the ability to never stop affecting the world until no one carries any instance of the movement.
Inspiration can take many shapes, and manifest in another person in many ways and they can be as much negative as positive. Intention and action are rarely unified but influence will always tie itself to the action. The intention just allows us to justify and comfort ourselves when we missed the target.
Our actions will live forever in the millions of micro movements we set in motion, just as all of the history and experience of the world has been carried through to influence us, genetically, culturally, emotionally. What will you leave? Will it be what drives toward a better world, a better experience, love? Or fear and pain?
We will be remembered. But in time, no matter who you are, no one will recall a name.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]